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GUSH & GUESTS (30 years on stage) – RESIDENCY

28Nov20:00

21 days ago WednesdayAlchemia, Manggha

What awaits us at the end of Krakow Jazz Autumn is a real improvisational feast – Mats Gustafsson will invite us to the thirtieth birthday of Gush! We will be in good company – the trio Gustafsson /Sandell /Strid will be joined in celebration by a group of intriguing friends with equally intriguing instruments …

Gush plays exactly as one would expect from three experienced musicians who’ve been working with each other for many decades. Gustafsson’s saxophone is not dissimilar to the human voice, Sandell’s piano is lyrical and percussive, and Strid‘s drums have their own mysterious fluid aesthetics. Together they create an intense, abstract beauty of sounds flowing together and forming one organic whole. The groups has recorded 8 albums – the latest is The March (2015, Atavistic Worldwide).

The musical lives of the master of improvisation Mats Gustafsson are varied and difficult to pinpoint, but let’s try to name a few: The Thing, FIRE!, The End, LUFT, FIRE! Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, and of course the NU Ensemble. He has also collaborated with such notable artists as Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Jim O’Rourke, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Yoshimi, Peter Brötzmann, and Ken Vandermark. He has played over 1 800 concerts worldwide and participated in the recording of over 200 records, and given Gustafsson’s artistic hyperactivity, these figures may well be underestimated. But that’s not all! Mats Gustafsson is also a curator of festivals, author of sound installations, and a composer and publisher.

This curious artist lives and breathes improvisation. Speaking to Fifteen Questions, he says “It has always been about the challenge and the research. The research. The search. And it will always be. The biggest challenge is to find your own personal voice on your instrument … and to keep developing it, all the time. ALL the time!”